Turks

Noun

Turk (plural Turks)

1. A person of an ethnically diverse linguistic group that speaks the Turkic languages.
2. A member of a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to Anatolia (which comprises the bulk of their modern nation-state of Türkiye).
   • The people of Matabello, like those of most of the Mahometan villages of East Ceram and Goram, amused me much by their strange ideas concerning the Russian war. They believe that the Russians were not only most thoroughly beaten by the Turks, but were absolutely conquered, and all converted to...1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 104
3. (obsolete) A Muslim.
   • Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers—if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me—with two Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players?c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
4. a Christian horse-archer in Crusader army (Turcopole).
5. (archaic) A bloodthirsty and savage person; vandal; barbarian.
   • Was neuer any Impe so wicked and barbarous, any Turke so vyle and brutishe.1579, John Lyly, Euphues, page 42
6. A member of a Mestee group in South Carolina.

See all 12 meanings of Turk